, who we are

Ovo [which translates as “egg” in Portuguese] is an association between Brazilian designers Luciana Martins and Gerson de Oliveira. They have been creating furniture, objects, and artistic projects since 1991. Their tables, chairs, bookshelves, and lamps combine formal quality and usability with a twist – they often contain some kind of humorous comment about home and living.
Good examples of that are their Cadê [where is it?] chair – its structure is hidden beneath a cube of elastic fabric; their Huevos Revueltos [scrambled eggs] coat racks, inspired by snooker balls; and their Feriado [holyday] bookshelf, whose lines include one subtle exception to the rule, just as the kind of day from what this piece of furniture borrows its name. According to Japanese magazine Axis, “Ovo’s take on design involves creating smart artifacts that affect our perceptions.”
Ovo has received design awards in Brazil, and their creations are often seen in the pages of publications that map design’s strong features, such as Phaidon’s & Fork (2007), and Daab’s Young Designers Americas (2006).
According to Portuguese curator Guta Moura Guedes, founder of ExperimentaDesign – Lisbon Biennial, “expressive communication ability, together with a subtle contamination of more artistic universes, give Ovo’s works rather symbolic dimensions. This Brazilian design studio is one of the most exciting at the moment, due to their consistent creations.” France based Objekto markets some of Ovo’s sixty-piece collection in Europe.
Simultaneously to their commercial activities at their showroom in São Paulo, Luciana Martins and Gerson de Oliveira are constantly feeding their research process – whose results have been displayed at galleries such as Vermelho, in São Paulo, and Rossana Orlandi, in Milan, as well as in trade shows such as Maison & Objet in Paris.
Ovo’s most conceptual facet reveals itself in works that move away from their strict functionality and make way for new ideas about living within renewed boundaries. In their PA installation (2005) – now belonging to São Paulo’s MAM [Museum of Modern Art] – lines and planes created by stainless steel, acrylic, and wood interventions extend for 23 meters on a wall, creating shapes alluding to standard heights of the body’s key movements, such as sitting down, lying down, leaning, and reaching out.
Ovo’s most recent creations include the Mezanino [mezzanine] line, with stainless steel and tinted glass superposed tables, and the Campo [field] asymmetric modules, which can be assembled to create different seating arrangements.

Ovo
Address: Rua Gomes de Carvalho, 830
São Paulo - SP - Brazil
Phone# +55 (11) 3045-0309
www.ovo.art.br

Press
Teté Martinho
+55 (11) 3812-0805
tetemartinho@uol.com.br